What's been Happening

Haven't posted in a while, so this will be like the "Christmas card" update for the month of September.

Michael is taking 5 classes at school. 4 meet M/W and 1 meets T/R. So it always seems the weekends are crunch time getting ready for Monday. He has had lots of reading, a couple of papers, spreadsheet projects, and other fun stuff. I think overall he's enjoying what he's learning, but the workload is pretty incredible. He's taking Criminal Justice, National Security Policy, Strategic Management, Real Estate Development, and Social Entrepreneurship. He's also keeping himself busy by going to company / agency presentations to determine what he's going to do when we leave! We all would love to know that :)

Anna and I do a lot of the same stuff we did back home. We have play dates with other kids, we go to the library for story time once a week, we go to the gym some (I joined the YMCA) - Anna loves the childcare there! We've taking some outings with other families (and the Women of the Cambridge 2nd Ward of the LDS church!) to a farm nearby, where we got to go on a hayride and feed the animals, and to area parks. Next week my mom is coming for a visit (yippee!) and we are going apple-picking on Thursday. I found a really cool wholesale produce place nearby that helps on our grocery bills. With our grad school budget (and Boston restaurant prices), I am cooking dinner at home every night and eating at home every day for lunch. No more El Pueblito when I don't feel like cooking!!! It's a really good discipline for me, though.

Anna is continuing to talk, talk, talk. These days she is playing with her words some (milk = "milky", fridge = "fridgy", etc.), practicing her jumping jacks, and learning to share her toys with other kids. That part isn't so fun. We also started potty training this week on Monday. As of now, Wed. night, we have had no success. Besides losing my mind this week, I am now thinking perhaps she's not ready. Any comments or advice is welcome!!

I'm also continuing my studies at DTS with Intro to Theology. I am really loving the class - it is really challenging my thinking. It's also challenging because the online class format means we turn in assignments every 2 weeks or so, and then the rest of the class comments on them. No pressure!! Actually, the dialogue that ensues is awesome. There are some really Godly people in my class that I am learning a ton from. I'm also keeping up with the IBC women's Bible study with another girl here. We meet one night a week and follow a week behind the group in Irving. God's been teaching us both a lot through the study. My friend has never done a Bible study before, so it is very refreshing to see the Scripture through her eyes!

We had Amy's cousin Eric and his family - wife Tracie and 1-yr. old daughter Evie - here at the end of September. We did lots of fun stuff like go to the Children's museum, take a duck tour of Boston, picnic in the Boston Public Garden, and eat dinner at the North End. The picture below is of a statue at the public garden - of the ducks from Make Way for Ducklings, which is set in the garden. We checked out the book from the library so we could read it to the girls. They were not impressed. We proved out our guest arrangement - a queen-size air mattress and a pack & play CAN fit in our study! Yay!


We have been going to Grace Chapel in Lexington, and although we aren't really able to get involved with their small groups, we are really liking the church. The pastor is doing a series on evangelism right now that's really challenging and motivating. What better place to put it in practice than here?? We pray God uses us here in whatever way He sees fit.

Big Number 2!

Anna's 2nd birthday was Sunday, August 20. We had a very fun day for her birthday. First, we went to church (one of her favorite things to do - she asks to go all the time!). We went to another new church, Grace Chapel in Lexington, MA.
After church we drove to the airport to see Dan, Angie, and Abigail Millner on their way back home from Galway, visiting Mandy, Jason, & Emma. Our plan was to meet them and eat lunch together at the airport, but unfortunately their flight was delayed an hour, so they didn't have time to eat. We ate before they arrived, then were only able to ride the airport shuttle with them to their outbound terminal. But it was great to see them if only for a few minutes! Abigail has grown a lot but is just as cute as ever! They had a couple of birthday gifts for Anna, which she opened on the airport bus. Another girl on the bus gave her a bracelet when she found out it was her birthday!
After we said goodbye, we drove home, and Anna napped while we finished getting ready for a little birthday party. We invited two new friends and their parents over to eat cake and help Anna open her presents. They had a fun time playing with Anna's new kitchen set we had gotten her.

Here are some pictures from Anna's birthday!

What's happening at 2:
Favorite things to say: "Deeelicious", "No way", "I don't like it", "Thank you/ welcome", "mines", "self"
Favorite things to do: Go to park, be outside, use finger paints, watch Mary Poppins and Sesame Street, read books, pretend to cook things for people, sing songs
Our favorites: "Happy Dance" (where she runs in place with legs flailing out to the sides and arms pumping vigorously), counting (especially the number eleventeen), singing songs (ABCDFIG), jumping - she is finally airborne!
Not so favorite: some little tantrums that magically appeared after the 2nd birthday - who is this child??

What a story

I've enjoyed working my way through the Jill Carroll story on the Christian Science Monitor website (she's the journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq and released 82 days later- the first one). http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/carroll/index.html

I've also enjoyed working my way through several websites to learn more about Christian Science, which, if I could channel Linda Richmond ala Mike Myers, "is neither Christian nor a Science. Discuss." This was initiated by Anna's and my visit to the children's program at the Christian Science Center here in Boston. It wasn't a religious program (so they told us), but whoa, was it a kind of freaky - but incredibly beautiful - place. Anyway, the Mother Ship (I mean, Church) is here in Boston, so there are a lot of adherents around. So sad.

Driving in Boston

...and I thought Dallas drivers were bad?!?!? The drivers here take road rage to a whole new level. Here are the rules of driving, as I have experienced them thus far:

1. Honk if there is the slightest chance (a) the person in front of you doesn't move fast enough; (b) the bicycle or pedestrian near you is in your way; (c) you think the person in front of you might not see the green light when it turns green (I have actually seen a taxi do this kind of "preemptive honking"); (d) the traffic in general isn't moving fast enough for your pleasure. If the situation doesn't change, just keep your hand on the horn. That'll fix it. Alternate method: you may roll down your window and yell at someone instead of honking. This is especially effective when the other driver has his or her window rolled up and is oblivious to you.
2. If you aren't sure whether you can turn left into a busy street because of oncoming traffic, just ease slowly into the street. Traffic will stop.
3. Always take into account the other driver's braking ability. This is especially effective when you pull out in front of them.
4. Don't worry about speed limits - the minimums, I mean. It's perfectly acceptable to do 20 on a road that could easily be traveled at 35. Especially when you have just pulled out in front of someone.
5. If you are the first car waiting to turn left at a red light, you should just turn left immediately when the light turns green; the oncoming traffic will yield to you.
6. Don't pay attention to rights-of-way. Cars will yield to whoever got there first.

I really thought the honking was excessive when we first got here; now I realize you MUST use your horn because otherwise people will just crash into you. Anna and I have had many near-death experiences because of the crazy drivers here.

Can it really be August 16?

My, my. Oh, the intentions. Probably you won't read this for at least 2 weeks since you've gotten tired of checking the blog, only to find no new entries out there. Sorry about that. Somehow life has taken off without me, as usual.

So, here's an update from the last couple of weeks:
Michael - Michael's nearing the end of Week 4 out of 5. He had midterms last week for Quant and Econ & got 98 on both his tests!! (Note to my parents: don't ask what the 2 points were taken off for, like you used to when I was in school!! lol) He's thoroughly enjoyed his classes, although the homework load will be nice to have a break from.

Amy - Amy & Anna have continued to take trips with the family program and meet more spouses and kids. We have met moms & kids from Minnesota, Tennessee, London, Mexico, Kyrgyzstan, Israel, and Taiwan...and we have met 2 dads and kids from Berkeley, CA and Israel. Sometimes there's a language barrier, but usually everyone just speaks pretty plainly, and repeats a lot (sometimes I have to do that with native Bostonians anyway, so it's no different...). It's amazing how many of the families can all speak English as a second language. We have recently visited the Swan Boats in Boston Public Garden, the Boston Museum of Science, a children's program at the Mary Baker Eddy Library (founder of Christian Science), and tomorrow we will visit the Boston Children's Museum.

Anna's getting excited about her birthday coming up on Sunday. Whenever I ask her how old she is going to be, she says "7". We'll keep trying. One of her latest accomplishments is getting her thumb to stay up on its own and saying "Gig 'em, Aggies"!! whoop!

Last week she got impetigo on her chin, so each day I was applying Polysporin several times a day, which apparently was slightly unpleasant for Anna. She would always say "No posporin" when I would get out the tube. One night I was telling Michael, who was going to brush her teeth, to remember the "P-O-L-Y-S-P-O-R-I-N". She said, "No ABCDEFG!" which made us howl with laughter, and I spelled it again, and she said "No PRS!"

Other things she's doing a lot these days are singing the ABC song, counting everything in sight (Tarrin, she's assigning one number to each object!), and saying "I want [item]" The other morning she was saying over and over again, "I want zucchini bread" so I got her on video. The first time she wouldn't say it, but finally the second time she showed off. (The scratches on her nose in the videos are from a nasty spill she took when she tripped on the sidewalk outside and face planted.)

We have visits planned from Amy's cousin Eric along with his wife Tracie, and their 1-yr old daughter Evie at the end of September. Amy's mom is visiting the 2nd week of October. Also Dangiegail Millner will be stopping by on Sunday - we'll go see them at the airport on their layover on their way back from Ireland. Yippee! A taste of home - we can't wait.

Speaking of a taste of home, there are 2 items that are NOT sold in grocery stores here - are we in a foreign country??!? Rotel tomatoes (i know!!!) and Ranch Style Beans, both of which are used to make my Aunt Melanie's Mexican Dish (or Kylie's Mexican dish to the Clonts's!). Anyway, a sweet girl that I've met, a military wife, found them at the AF Commissary nearby and bought me several cans. Seems that's how I'll be getting my 'Texan' canned goods...in the "international" section of the commissary!! Who knew?

The last thing I'll include is that I (Amy) am organizing a babysitting coop with 4 other moms I've met around here. We are doing it with tickets so we're not locked into a schedule. I'm excited to see how it's going to work - and to get some free time! The great thing about it is everyone is pumped to join because everyone's on a tight budget. Gotta love the free stuff.

Calling your To-Do Lists

This blog is collecting to-do lists for a book to be published in Fall 2007. The author is still looking for "lists from Republicans, conservatives, red state types, and born-agains." Apparently the grapevine he's created doesn't reach those demographics very easily. Do you happen to fit any of those categories? Submit your to-do list and you might get published!

I Won Four Pounds of Squash

OK, so a while back in women's Bible study they asked us the best thing we had ever won. I racked my brain and couldn't think of anything!! Well, next time remind me that I now have won 4 lbs. of free squash. How, you ask?

Last Sunday morning we trekked over to Harvard Square where there is a farmer's market that sets up Fridays and Sundays each week. They have various fruits, veggies, flowers, breads, herbs, etc....the usual suspects (plus a jam stand with a lady that has a thick Massachusetts accent - so thick that Michael took me to her stand and started asking her questions about the jams just so I could hear her talk...is that wrong?).

There was a HUGE yellow squash sitting by the cash register with a sign that read "Guess the Weight and Win an Equivalent Weight in Squash". Tempting, eh? You had to guess it to the tenth of a pound. The guy next to me guessed 6.5 pounds and was wrong. I picked it up and thought it weighed about the same as a half gallon of milk (and luckily I knew a gallon of milk weighs about 8 pounds). So I guessed 4.2 pounds. I also was wrong.

This week I came back and there was a sign that said "Last week's squash weighed 4.3 pounds," and the girl working the stand recognized me and said right off the bat, "You were really close last week!" I said, "yeah, was there a winner?" And then the good news. Apparently there was a winner right before closing time, but he didn't like squash and told them they could give it away to someone else. The girl decided on the spot that I should be the free squash recipient. How lucky can a girl get?!?! So now we have four pounds of zucchini.

Is this a marketable skill set?

Starting School...

Orientation started on Wednesday for Michael, and he got a rude awakening: two tests to divide the class into teaching sections for their summer program. Math and microeconomics are the main subjects of the next month of study, so if you love to talk math or econ, I'm sure Michael would love to hear from you. And if you don't, then he'd love it even more! He'll have class pretty much every day from 9am - 5pm and is expecting about 3 hours of homework each night. It will be a pretty intense month!

Michael's class is slightly over 200, about half from the U.S. and half elsewhere. Everyone got 20 seconds to introduce themselves (without referring to professional credentials) to the whole class on Thursday. Michael told the story of knocking Dan and Angie's picture into Dan's groom's cake at their wedding...kind of a 'most embarrassing moment' story. Another guy sang, repeat: sang, "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole to the class (as in, "we're unforgettable"). And his last name is Cole. Ugh. In my mind, he just created a most embarrassing moment! Avoid eye contact.

Michael has also learned that he is probably the most uninteresting of his classmates. Among his fellow classmates are the former Prime Minister of Tanzania (1995-2005), the principal dancer in the New York City Ballet, the Deputy Director General of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, 3 members of the Mexican Congress, a member of the Danish Parliament, a person from the CIA, an advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister, a member of Parliament from Thailand, an internal medicine physician, and the list goes on and on. I think it's clear now that I (Michael) definitely filled some "Wise County boy" quota Harvard had. :-)

Anna and I (Amy) also attended orientation on Friday for the family activities. Next week they have a 'paint your pottery' day and trip to the Aquarium planned for us. We're going to participate as much as we can, to get to know the other families. The ones we met on Friday were really nice people. We met a family from Nashville with 3 kids ages 3, 5, & 7.

Soon I'm going to blog about ego trips. But I'm too tired now.

Fashion Queen

Here's a video of Anna testing out Amy's high heels...



And another of Anna playing with Michael after dinner...



Enjoy!

We're in!

Anna and I arrived a week ago to a 'mostly' put together apartment, and somehow we have been working ever since to get this place in order! Here are some pics. Please pardon the picture quality; I shrunk the pictures to attach them to an email. And I know my head is cut off in the first picture!

We have also figured out that the playground is the place to meet people! Michael didn't meet a single person (aside from delivery men) the first week he was here alone; now we have met a few other families with small kids that live in the area. Thanks Anna! The people we have gotten to know the best are a Canadian family with a daughter named Simone. She is almost 6, and I think she likes playing with Anna because she can boss her around and Anna does whatever she says! But she's really sweet to her. Her daddy is in the same program as Michael, and he's the first we've met in his program. We'll meet more next week when orientation starts (there is orientation for families too!).

2 good reasons not to have a car

Alright, so the two biggest news events in Michael's life today related to our car. Well, almost.

1. The parking garage next to our building (where our car is parked) caught on fire. Michael found out when he heard sirens and looked out the window to see 18 fire engines outside. Isn't that a great feeling? Anyway, more than 35 cars were damaged - but not including ours. Here's the article.

2. Part of the Big Dig caved in and killed a woman today. So sad - she was a newlywed. It's on the part between our apartment and the airport. Also between our apartment and IKEA. Two places Michael has / will be traveling to a lot lately. Here's the article.

2 very good reasons to take public transportation!!

like IKEA?

...then you'll love our apartment! Saturday Michael made the largest IKEA purchase in our family's history. Thankfully he still had the U-Haul from his cross-country trip to carry his loot home! In case you're interested, here are some of my favorite items:
Anna's bed
fun rug for the den
Amy's desk
Michael's been working so hard unloading, loading, and unloading that little trailer. I bet he's glad he had to turn it in today so I couldn't send him on any more "runs"! If you've ever been to the IKEA retail store, I feel like we're trying to furnish a "living in 1000 sq. ft." model they do in the store.

Michael's trek took him across 11 states during his 3-day trip (Wed - Fri). He braved rain, I-40 construction delays, and the New Jersey turnpike along the way. Like he said on Wednesday night, "It's me and the big rigs out here." Except for the CB radio, of course.

Monday the rental furniture arrives, and Thursday Anna and I arrive. We are anxious to be there with Michael and get settled into our new "home"!

On the move...

Amy here. So...we're not in Boston yet, but we're definitely on our way. A quick status of where we are in the process: we DO have a place to live (yay!). I'll send out a change of address to everyone in email. We're in a student housing apartment tower here. Our new apartment is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1000 sq. ft. matchbox! :) (Read: quick to clean!). Our lease starts July 5. Michael's class starts July 26; we want to get up there a few weeks early so we can get settled and perhaps do a little sightseeing before school starts, so our current plan is this: Michael will leave on July 5, and Amy & Anna will fly up and join him a few days later. I know he's looking forward to that 3-day driving trip with a U-Haul attached to our trusty car!

Our house went on the market May 4, and we got an offer May 15. (Another praise!) We are in the contract option phase, and need to agree on the extent of "fix-ups" we will do to the house so the buyers will close. Ugh...we found out yesterday we will need to replace about $2000 worth of windows...what's up with that? They don't leak, so...anyway. Assuming we can come to an agreement, we will close on June 29 and then be out of the house by July 3. Thankfully my mom is allowing us to stay with her a few days while we're in transition.

So, let the packing begin! This will be the icky part, but hopefully the 2 garage sales we had will show their worth now...

Welcome to our Blog!

The Millers would like to welcome you to our first ever blog! We thought this would be a convenient way to keep our friends and family informed about our lives. It will also allow the grandparents to get their Anna "fix" whenever they need it! Enjoy!